National Trust - Carne and Pendower — Attraction in Veryan

Hit and miss but lovely. Nightmare to get to, even as a local... meet a tourist on the approach road and you are stuffed, why can't they use their handbrakes, tuck in properly, know when it is on them to drive through, back up, all of it??? Nightmare.

There is a car park that is quite steep but functional. Better still for the disabled there is parking practically on the beach but this is limited and doesn't seem to be regulated to stop nonbluebadgers nabbing a "nicer spot" from those who genuinely need it.

Sandy beach with some stones and shells. Lots of sea weed. Swimming depends on where in the tide cycle it is. Close to the shore there is a good drop and clear patches between the weed so you can get in easy. When it is quite far out it takes a long walk to get depth and all of it is through a slurry of weed and broken shell, so timing matters. Good for kayaking and oddly for this shore it sometimes has surf too.

Nice relaxed beach that is...

My wife and I like to run from Carne car park, up the iron-age fort, over the burial mound, across the cliffs to Nare Head, then along the cliff top, past the atomic lookout, down toward Paradoe (?) bay before cutting up and over the top of the hill, running the wooded path down to the abandoned stone cottage by the sea before heading back along the lower path to Carne beach. Its 8 or 10km, I think, and brutally hard work in parts but so, so beautiful. We finish with a cold dip on Carne beach and a coffee and an orange polenta slice from the Thirstea horsebox cafe in the National Trust car park. It's a wonderful area, rarely too busy, and provides the very best of what Cornwall has to offer. If you see a sprightly woman and her wheezing husband dragging themselves up the cliff-paths, say "hi" it's...

Great beaches. Shallow warm seas which slope very gently. Carne has great rockpools to the far left. The tide goes out a long way, so the beach is huge when it's out! The surf is minimal (head to the North coast if that's your thing). There are small car parks at the rear of both beaches with toilets. They are quick to fill up on warm summer days so be early. Carne has a café van in the car park selling tea/coffee, snacks, cakes and ice-cream (Thirstea company??) which is great, the proprietor is charming and the cakes and local ice-cream are very very good, not cheap mind. The roads to the beach are very narrow once past Veryon and can be busy, again be early! We love them, great beaches for...